Audition results... and other news

I got the results from my audition for Gilbert and Sullivan's "Trial by Jury" at last! (I auditioned December 10th in San Francisco before I left for home). Here is the email they sent me: 

Dear Jacquelyn:

I'm sorry to tell you that we will not be offering you a role in the upcoming productions of  "Trial By Jury" and "Engaged". We saw an exceptional group of incredibly talented people at the auditions, which has made the decision-making very difficult. Unfortunately there are just not enough roles to go around!

Thank you so much for auditioning. We do hope to see you back to audition for other Lamplighters shows soon!  

With very best wishes,

Sarah

Sarah Vardigans

General Manager

Lamplighters Music Theatre

So that won't be happening this spring.  That makes me a little sad, but it is probably actually a good thing because maybe it would have made my schedule too busy this semester. 

I got an email from David Korevaar (a concert pianist and teacher) at the University of Colorado in Boulder this week as well, informing me that they would like me to re-audition in January or February for scholarships for their program this coming year. CU Boulder was the first school I auditioned for last January. The audition went very well and I liked the school a lot, so I was seriously considering going there until I got offered the scholarship at the San Francisco Conservatory.   Since the Professional Studies Diploma at the San Francisco Conservatory is only one year long, however, I decided to defer my enrollment at the University of Colorado until next fall so that I could plan on going straight there after my year at SFCM.  

Now because of the my CU scholarship audition coming up, I have a lot of music to practice and and prepare by February 12th  (the date I chose for my audition). So, like I said, it is probably for the best that I didn't get into "Trial by Jury".... 

Of course I still would have loved to have been in it!

Tonight my family opened presents for Christmas (we have a tradition of opening them on Christmas Eve).  I got some new shirts, a beeping remote-control key-finding keychain (because I am always losing my keys), and... a new portable hard drive from my Mom and Dad to go with my new laptop from Niclas!  That will be very handy for backing up all my important files.  I'm so excited to get to work again!

 Things have been so busy this week with my family. It has been a lot of fun, but I can't wait to start practicing all my new music and working on recording!  I might practice a little bit tomorrow even though it's Christmas.

Tomorrow we get to talk to my brother Joseph on the telephone for the first time since he left on his mission in September.  It will be so nice to hear his voice!  He will call us on our home phone at 2:00 in the afternoon.   All of the family will be here to talk to him... I'm excited about that!

All my family has gone to bed so I'm going to go and get a little sleep now too...

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

A Wonderful Christmas Present

I have to tell you an amazing story that happened to me.  Those of you who have been reading my blog may remember that I wrote a few weeks ago about how my laptop has not been functioning since this summer... The hard drive crashed and everything on it got deleted, and the computer was totally unusable because of it.  It was driving me crazy not to have my laptop at school but I was waiting until I could get a little more money to be able to afford a new hard drive to fix it...

Well, soon after I wrote that blog post,  I received an email from a very nice person who read about my problem on my blog offered to pay to have the hard drive fixed for me. His name is Niclas and he left a couple of comments on my blog before (and on Youtube as MrCapacitors).  I wrote back and said that I would be very happy to have it fixed - but that it would probably cost about $100.   He wrote back and said that was fine - and before I had the chance to write back he wrote again, saying that if my laptop is old perhaps it would be better for me just to get a new laptop, and then offered to pay for a completely new laptop for me.

It seemed almost too good to be true... I didn't want to get my hopes up too much in case it actually didn't happen...  but this generous person actually went right away and found a computer that would be good for my needs (especially for the sound and video editing that I do), and transferred the money to my paypal account.  So I ordered a wonderful new HP laptop from Amazon the night before last... And it came with free one-day shipping for Christmas so it got here today! I am writing this blog post on it right now!  I am sooooo happy about it - what a wonderful surprise Christmas present. 

Tonight is the first time in months that I can upload pictures straight from my camera again (I could only send pictures from my cell phone before)!  And here is a picture of my new computer:

Pretty, yes?  It even has a fingerprint scanner!!!

Soon I will start putting some more music online... I'm so excited! 

Merry Merry Christmas!  And thank you so much to Niclas who just made my life much easier...

:-)

Down by Fisherman's Wharf - and Outside the Conservatory Window

There was a huge Christmas tree down by the wharf when I went there last week!  You really can't see how gigantic it is in this picture... but each of those Christmas ornaments were almost the size of a soccer ball.






I love this picture I got of the boats on the water with the clouds:










And here was the view from my practice room window last night while the sun was setting:






This was from the window above the stairway: 

Ho finito!

Oh my goodness I have had so much going on and I have lots of good news to write about but right now I don't have time so I will just write a little...

This morning I finished my last final for the semester - it was my oral exam for Italian class.  I think I did well!  I am so happy because my Italian teacher  is really amazing - his name is Brian Neilson. I am learning so fast in his class. 

Tonight is my audition for the Gilbert and Sullivan opera, "Trial by Jury".  I am a bit nervous for that because I just started learning the excerpt that I will be singing last night, and it is not very well-memorized yet. Fortunately it is only two pages long... I am just going to work on it most of the day today, until I have to go to the audition.

And tomorrow I have another audition with a small opera company (the San Francisco Parlor Opera) for Offenbach's "Tales of Hoffman". I will be audition with the "Doll Song" for that, and a couple other pieces if they ask for them.

Tomorrow our chamber music coach, Yoshi, is taking my quintet out for dinner! That will be fun. It will be right before my opera audition though, so I am a little nervous about getting there in time. My group said we will choose a place for dinner that is very nearby.

That's all for now... I have to go practice. 

Last week of the semester

First of all as an update - The concert on Thursday went really well!  I was so relieved when after the first movement finished, a man in the audience yelled out, "WOW!" and the whole audience started clapping, even though they knew it wasn't the end yet.  After the whole piece was finished (it's about 43 mins long), we got a standing ovation - so I know the audience liked it.  That makes me very happy.

 Now it's the last week of class... I have a final project due in Continuo class - which is a sonata by Handel for Oboe and continuo.  I will have to learn it and rehearse it on my own with the oboist, and then perform it in class Thursday for the final.

I also have two finals this week for Italian, because I am taking both the beginning and intermediate classes simultaneously this year.

I'm so excited because next semester I will be taking a class in jazz improvisation!   That is something I have been wanting to learn how to do for a long time.

And on Friday I have a singing audition for a San Francisco theater company called, "Lamplighters", which specializes in Gilbert and Sullivan operas.   I have to learn the excerpts this week for that, as well.

So, this week is very busy... but when it's over the semester will be over!! And then I will have a nice break at home in Montana.

I'd better go get practicing....

Concert prep...

Tomorrow is the big day!  I will be playing the Dvorak Piano Quintet in A Major on the second half of the SFCM Chamber Music Concert at 4 o'clock! 

I was so nervous today but we played it through in my teacher's studio class and it went pretty well.  Tomorrow I am going to skip my Italian class so that I have time to take it easy, eat lunch, get dressed, and warm up before-hand. 

So, send me good thoughts around 5:00 pm California time!